Prospective utility of therapeutic ultrasound in dentistry—Review with recent comprehensive update

BACKGROUND: The utility of ultrasound (US) for therapeutic purposes is still in its infancy. Therapeutic US (TUS) has been used widely in medical field for urological application, surgical intervention, bone healing, and osteointegration in cancer and healing of full thickness excised skin lesions, and within dentistry as a prediagnostic, diagnostic and therapeutic purpose. The purpose of the paper is to review and determine the efficacy of US as one of the treatment modalities for its role in maxillofacial region to reduce pain and promote soft tissue healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Medline search included of the international literature published between 1976 and 2011 and was restricted to English language articles, published work of past researchers including in vitro and in vivo studies, recent additions of textbooks on surgical and therapeutic applications of US and, current articles in conference papers and reports accessed from the internet using Google search engine on therapeutic ultrasound. RESULTS: Very few article regarding effect of therapeutic of US for its use of insonation for treatment of patient with pain and soft tissue injury are available. This review article mainly emphasizes the therapeutic utility of US in dentistry for its effectiveness to decrease joint stiffness, reduce pain and muscle spasms and improve muscle mobility. In vivo studies have shown very little clinical effects. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is warranted in this clinically important area to make the development of noninvasive, multifunctional ultrasound devices for repair, regeneration and other therapeutic utility a success.